Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-22
FRIDAY MORNING. APRIL. %, 1887
TWO YEARS OF IT.

FRIDAY MORNING., APRlL. 2Z, 1857.
TWO YEARS OF IT.
Mr.. Cleveland has just finished the Sec
ond year Of his administration of the
affairs of the American people in the capa-
city of Democratic President. In the
closing months Of that two years very
Noticeable symptom has appeared in the
relation the President holds to the people.
Whereas it has been regarded as an item
of interest whether such and such Dem
0cratic leader approved of Mr.. Cleve-
land. it has now become matter of in
tense interest to such leader whether
Mr.. Cleveland approves of him. The prob
lem of whether the member fromB uncombe
endorses the President has given way to
the other problem of whether the Presi-
dent endorses the member from Bun
combe. Because if he does not-the
President is stronger with the people of
Buncombe than their member. The Adj
ministration has outgrown him and in the
hearts of the people it has reached the full
size of very solid manhood of legal age.
This hold upon the people is the result of
an honest and courageous endeavor to
give the whole American people fair,
impartial, and wise government, with little
regard to the clemor within or without
the party to which the man that is making
the effort, belongs. In these two years
Mr.. Cleveland has won the confidence of
the people by wise boldness that few OF
his predecessors have possessed. His vetoes
of the Dependent Pension bill and Of the
Texas aid bill, have shown that he is
superior to the temptation to cater to the
popular feeling. North or South, and his
resistance to the clamor Of the spoils
hunters has given evidence that he is not
to be sscer7e9. from his purpose of CIV
ing the country an etlcient government,
by his political friends any more than by
his political enemies.
1t would be hard to look over this broad
country to-day and find any class. section,
or even community of the people with
which Cleyeland's policy is not popular
To what are called the business interests
of the country, he has given the most alb
solute confidence in his determination
and ability to preserve them from danger.
So wise has been his selection of those who
In the government come nearest to these
interests, that Senator Sherman in speak
ing of the successor of Secretary Manning,
In speech delivered a few days before
the appointment Of Secretary Fairchild.
said
The 8 per cents are liable to be called at
pleasure, and the Secretary of the Treasury is
armed with such general power he can jude
iously see way out of the dilemma. 1t seems
most probable thing to me that Gen. Fair
child, an able, conscientious man, who is the
present Assistant Secretary, will be called to
assume full control over the Treasury porto
lilo, and should my prediction prove true,
you will End in him an officer who will be
fair in the discharge of his duties. I can
congratulate you upon that.
To the Southern section of the country
Mr.. Cleveland's administration has
brought change as if by magic. An ad-
ministration under which $4,000, 900 is
invested in the South in 1885, against
$35 900, 900 the year before has no further
to look tor certificate OF wise govern
ment. 1t has given new life and prosper
ity to the South, and so established a
hold upon the people of that section that
spoils -hunters may essay in vain to break.
ho -,
this same administration has given a
needed rest in the sense of security and
safe citizenship. No right thinking Ame-
rican can turn his eyes upon the State
agricultural and mechanical exhibitions
Of the colored people of North Carolina,
and Arkansas and Mis- ppi without the
conviction that, as we ito the white
man. CleVsiand's Administration has
brought to the colored cities of the South
that sense of security that enables him to
turn at least some of his attels ion from
politics to the practical and material de-
velopment of the country in whiC3a he
lives and, at the same time, to the eleRa-
tion of himself.
And this Administration has given US a
government at least leavened with, if not
Jet spbordinated to, the spirit of the civil
service. This, of itself, is boon. It is
a touchstone which is fast separating in
in the peoples minds the mere politician
from the expert in State-craft. The coun-
try is slowly but surely coming to look
with amusement. mingled with contempt,
upon the Republicans bowling because
their friends are turned out and the Dem
ocrats bowling because they are not turn
ed out. For the first time in quarter of
century the country has Treasury De-
partment not made political machine,
and by those who remember that in 1880
this department was simply machine at
work all over the Union for the nomina-
ton of John Sherman, the change can be
appreciated. For the first time the poll
tics of the country have been free from the
interference of the Internal Revenue Col
lect0rs and their subordinates, and for the
first time the primaries, conventions, and
polling precincts are to be seen without
the usual equipment of storekeepers,
aaugers, and other heelers connected with
che service. This reform has been enfo1 ced
with more or less success in every depart
ment OF the government.
So much for the halfway house of the
Cleveland administration-its first two
years. If its last two are like unto 1t, no
political party can intervene between him
and a second term. Indeed, he cannot